UNIFIED SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGN MANAGEMENT
This disclosure pertains to a Multi-Location focused cloud based computer system and methods, which can be White Labeled, for creating, conducting, managing, monetizing and gauging the effectiveness of Social Media Marketing Campaigns across all content deployed to one or more social networks. The key components consists of Social messages, a time zone aware automated scheduling and posting module, an internal responsive Landing page builder and ‘plug-ins’ for use with external builders and Unified Metric System all managed from a Dashboard having Multi-Location Campaign management features. Together the components are referred to as Buzzes. A Campaign can have one or more Buzzes. The Unified Metrics System continuously tracks Follower Actions across all content then places them against a value matrix calculating a single effectiveness score called the BuzzScore. These components, in other systems, are typically disparate and require cobbling together multiple reports from various networks and web pages to determine effectiveness.
This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. 119(e) of U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 61/939,346 filed Feb. 13, 2014, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.
FIELD OF THE DISCLOSUREIn general this disclosure relates to software in the digital marketing space, particularly for creating, conducting, managing and monetizing social media marketing campaigns supporting a multi-tier, multi-location business model where customers, such as Franchisors, Agencies and large Brands dealing with the challenges of multi-location marketing.
BACKGROUND OF THE DISCLOSUREMobile and Social Media technology has transformed the traditional mix of advertising and marketing channels, Print-TV-Direct Mail-etc., with Social Media Marketing firmly taking its place in corporate marketing. This shift has created the need and desire for tools that unify and automate creating, conducting, managing, monetizing and gauging the effectiveness of full function social marketing campaigns especially in a multi-location setting. Full function Campaigns include Landing pages which are proven to increase conversion and effectiveness.
If the Campaign communications contain disparate content it makes effectiveness tracking extremely difficult, if not impossible due to unknown relationships contained and managed within social networks. A common practice is to include links in social posts to external content, such as a Landing page known to increase effectiveness but can also form a disconnect to analytics and tracking especially when users share to their followers. The act of sharing, especially simultaneously to multiple networks can cause an overload, disconnect and significantly complicate content management to the point where it is not possible. The problem is magnified for businesses involved in multi-tier multi-location business models such as Agencies, Franchisors or Large Brands where multiple divisions, clients and or locations exist.
This disclosure tracks, manages, automates and solves these problems by providing unified content, permissions, metrics and computing structure for content creation, management and tracking tools across all content resulting in a single easy to understand effectiveness score referred to as a BuzzScore.
Where multi-locations are involved the Disclosure has the ability to Clone entire Campaigns and Buzzes which fully duplicates and synchronize location specific data to internal profiles and other integrated operating data systems to access required information such as pricing, images, addresses, phone numbers, contact names, etc. This unique tracking method makes the important act of social media sharing among computers and servers meaningful and useful.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF DISCLOSUREThe software of this Disclosure operates in the Cloud specifically to execute programs to process the act of creating, conducting, managing and monetizing social media marketing campaigns to popular social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and the like. A typical social media marketing campaign includes one or more communications to social followers in various social networks. In this disclosure these communications are referred to as Buzzes and they are assigned to one or more Campaigns. A Buzz can have multiple configurations consisting of Social posts containing text messages and image content selectively linked to Landing pages which boost conversion by providing the real estate to fully document the campaigns purpose and or cause including calls to actions known to increase campaign effectiveness and conversion.
There is a central user interface for the software, referred to as the Dashboard, which presents various data, related graphics and functionality pertaining to orchestrating and administration of Campaigns in a multiple location setting such as accounts, locations, users, content creation, best practices and managing performance. Governing access to functionality is a security schema which includes logins, passwords and a Hierarchy of Permissions that is integrated to a multi-tier business model system supporting multi-location marketing for Partners, Clients, Locations and Users. An example of the multi-tier multi-location opportunity would be Franchisor marketing for Franchisees which typically need to localize marketing. In the system the Franchisor would be a Partner who can create landing page Templates and campaigns for Clients such as the Franchisee however Clients can only edit certain elements of the landing pages and can't perform campaign services for Partners.
The software of this Disclosure is built to be ‘white labeled’ by business partners such as Franchisors and Agencies dealing with the challenges of multi-location marketing. Therefore a robust Hierarchy of Permissions is integrated into the Disclosure's Landing page Template Cloud, location profiles, unified metrics and Dashboard was engineered to facilitate efficient and accurate tracking of metrics within and across all content especially when users share within social networks.
The Disclosure's Landing pages can be built internally or externally, generated manually or automatically and are based on responsive web technology to provide optimum viewing from any internet connected device. When built externally the Disclosures Landing page ‘plug-in’ is used to designate content for tracking and editing. The Disclosures Landing pages contain brand control functions which lock down and prevent editing or deleting of brand related elements by lower level users. The content of the Landing pages can be static or dynamic from data feeds and or other integrated operating data systems such as MLS, eCommerce and the like.
When deploying Buzzes or Campaigns to multiple locations, location specific variable data in the landing pages or social posts can be automatically updated upon deployment from internal location profiles and or external systems making deployment of large campaigns covering multiple locations easy and efficient.
The Disclosures unified metric system calculates effectiveness by putting collected statistics against a value matrix yielding a unique Effectiveness score, referred to as the BuzzScore which, in part, also contains generally accepted marketing metrics such as Reach, Engagement and Conversion. The BuzzScore is then rolled up to the Campaign, Location, Client and Partner levels for evaluating and promoting best practices.
The present Disclosure is a novel Cloud based multi-tenant multi-location capable computer software system which unifies and integrates the components and methods for creating, conducting, managing, monetizing and gauging the effectiveness across all content of social media marketing campaigns to multiple social networks. Responsive web technology is used for content providing optimal viewing on mobile phones, tablets and desktop devices.
Upon entering the software the main Dashboard screen is displayed as shown in
As shown in the main view of the Dashboard of
Cloning can also be done at the Buzz level, when it is desired to use a successful Buzz from another Campaign, versus creating one from scratch. To achieve this, one would navigate to a Campaign, highlight the Buzz which displays the section item 310 in
Locations profiles in
To add a location one would highlight Locations, item 1202 in
Once a new campaign is established the next steps, in general, are to follow
There are multiple ways to create a Buzz for a Campaign.
As described above, once a Campaign is established, Buzzes can be set up to be posted to Social Networks item 154, over the internet/Cloud at the appropriate scheduled time, per Location and Time Zone, via the Software and Server of
Item 416 shows the section where users can optionally add Media, images or videos, to the social media post. This can be loaded from a web based library, local computer, or the Disclosure has the ability to procure images from other websites which is desirable in many settings such as retail that are promoting new items from a manufacturer. This feature allows a customer such as a Retailer to procure the image assets directly and automatically from their manufacturer's website. Libraries in the Disclosure have maintenance functions such as remove and change images. If media is selected a preview of it is shown in item 418.
Scheduling of the Buzz takes place in the section indicated by 420, where the Buzz run time is scheduled for a day or more using the calendar. Posting Buzzes can be configured in various ways, set times of day, multiple posts per day via the Add Time button, intervals of days or weeks or months are all supported by the Disclosure. Each Buzz has its own independent schedule of days and times to post out with periods that maximize participation from followers of the social media network one is posting to. Buzz can be posted NOW as indicated in 422 and saved.
The computer operations that create the Buzz as described above and in
The run time of a Campaign is automatically determined and is based on the posting times of the Buzzes plus a settable period of time to capture user interaction. For example the start of a Campaign would be equal to the time that the first Buzz is posted to a social network and the end date is equal to the time of the last post of the last Buzz in the Campaign plus a settable period where residual user interaction is captured ie 2 days after the last post. As Buzzes are added to the System
Landing pages are single page websites as shown
To create a landing page in the Disclosure, a standard user must select a pre-designed landing page Template that presents both the structure and content of the landing page that will be used such as in
Newly created Templates are stored in a centralized network repository called the Template Cloud. Each Template item 178 element stored in the Template Cloud is assigned a Unique ID, and stores the name of the Template parent (if it was copied from an existing Template), the name of the partner it was created by or on behalf of by an Admin, the name of the Template and the cloud folder where it is stored. If either an Admin or Partner wants to create or copy a Template but with some layout differences a new instance of that Template is created in the Template Cloud, with a new unique ID. An Admin or a Partner can then modify the new instance of the Template only. This new instance of the Template stores a unique ID that identifies both the parent Template and new owner of the Template (if the Template belongs to the Partner). All layout elements in the new Template instance, including all values/attributes/parameters are copied along with the new instance of the Template so that either Admin or a Partner can edit the actual layout of the new instance. The Hierarchy of Permissions of
If either an Admin or Partner wants to share a Template, permissions are defined within the Template Share structure item 182 associated with that Template item 178. Templates can be shared either publically (to all Clients of that Partner) or privately. When Templates are shared privately, the ptShare table, item 180 is used to determine which Partner or Client has access to a specific Template ID. In case the Template needs to be available to specific sub-level users only, certain extra entities will appear in ptShare table item 180 defining who has access and whether it is a paid or free Template Landing page. Templates as shown in
The software of the Disclosure can uniquely and automatically build and deploy complete Campaigns, Buzzes with Landing pages from data feeds of other systems as note in
The content aware unit 1020 may also comprise a programmable content forwarding plane block 1028 and one or more storage blocks 1022 that may be coupled to the programmable content forwarding plane block 1028. The programmable content forwarding plane block 1028 may be configured to implement content forwarding and processing functions, such as at an application layer or L3, where the content may be forwarded based on content name or prefix and possibly other content related information that maps the content to network traffic. Such mapping information may be maintained in one or more content tables (e.g., CS, PIT, and FIB) at the content aware unit 1020 or the network unit 10. The programmable content forwarding plane block 1028 may interpret user requests for content and accordingly fetch content, e.g., based on meta-data and/or content name (prefix), from the network or other content routers and may store the content, e.g., temporarily, in the storage blocks 1022. The programmable content forwarding plane block 1028 may then forward the cached content to the user. The programmable content forwarding plane block 1028 may be implemented using software, hardware, or both and may operate above the IP layer or L2.
The storage blocks 1022 may comprise a cache 1024 for temporarily storing content, such as content that is requested by a subscriber. Additionally, the storage blocks 1022 may comprise a long-term storage 1026 for storing content relatively longer, such as content submitted by a publisher. For instance, the cache 1024 and the long-term storage 1026 may include Dynamic random-access memories (DRAMs), solid-state drives (SSDs), hard disks, or combinations thereof.
The network components described above may be implemented on any general-purpose network component, such as a computer or network component with sufficient processing power, memory resources, and network throughput capability to handle the necessary workload placed upon it.
The secondary storage 1104 is typically comprised of one or more disk drives or tape drives and is used for non-volatile storage of data and as an over-flow data storage device if RAM 1108 is not large enough to hold all working data. Secondary storage 1104 may be used to store programs that are loaded into RAM 1108 when such programs are selected for execution. The ROM 1106 is used to store instructions and perhaps data that are read during program execution. ROM 1106 is a non-volatile memory device that typically has a small memory capacity relative to the larger memory capacity of secondary storage 1104. The RAM 1108 is used to store volatile data and perhaps to store instructions. Access to both ROM 1106 and RAM 1108 is typically faster than to secondary storage 1104.
Claims
1) A method of operating a social media marketing campaign platform using a server, comprising the steps of:
- creating, scheduling, conducting and managing social media marketing campaigns whereby metrics are captured and analyzed for effectiveness across campaign content to one or more social networks from a single system;
- building responsive landing pages;
- identifying track-able web elements for use with an internal unified metric system with a value matrix for calculating an effectiveness score;
- procuring and sharing content using an Application Program Interface (API) with an ability to automatically build and deploy campaigns from a set of user instructions or programmatic operations;
- automatically duplicating, distributing and deploying the campaign content to multiple locations where location specific data and time zone management is seamlessly updated without manual intervention; and
- displaying information on a centralized dashboard for monitoring, orchestrating and administrating performance aspects of the campaigns.
2) The method as specified in claim 1, wherein the landing page contains brand control functions limiting an ability of users to change brand related content.
3) The method as specified in claim 1, further comprising the step of enabling plug-ins for other landing page builders to integrate with the campaign content and metric system.
4) The method as specified in claim 1, further comprising the step of using location profiles to source location specific data for programmatic update of the campaign content.
5) The method as specified in claim 1, further comprising the step of providing content from approved libraries.
6) The method as specified in claim 1, further comprising the step of sending an alert to users that the campaign content is scheduled for deployment but not yet in an active or approved state.
- A computer readable medium including instructions executable by a server having a
7) The method as specified in claim 1, further comprising the step of approving the campaign content prior to its deployment.
8. The method as specified in claim 1, wherein a centralized dashboard seamlessly presents content to users based on the specifications within a permissions matrix.
9) The method as specified in claim 1, further comprising the step of white labeling for rebranding purposes.
10) processor, including:
- instructions for creating, scheduling, conducting and managing social media marketing campaigns whereby metrics are captured and analyzed for effectiveness across campaign content to one or more social networks from a single system;
- instructions for building responsive landing pages;
- instructions for identifying track-able web elements for use with an internal unified metric system with a value matrix for calculating an effectiveness score;
- instructions for procuring and sharing content using an Application Program Interface (API) with an ability to automatically build and deploy campaigns from a set of user instructions or programmatic operations;
- instructions for automatically duplicating, distributing and deploying the campaign content to multiple locations where location specific data and time zone management is seamlessly updated without manual intervention; and
- instructions for displaying information on a centralized dashboard for monitoring, orchestrating and administrating performance aspects of the campaigns.
11) The computer readable medium as specified in claim 10, wherein the landing page contains brand control functions limiting an ability of users to change brand related content.
12) The computer readable medium as specified in claim 10, further comprising instructions for enabling plug-ins for other landing page builders to integrate with the campaign content and metric system.
13) The computer readable medium as specified in claim 10, further comprising further comprising instructions for using location profiles to source location specific data for programmatic update of the campaign content.
14) The computer readable medium as specified in claim 10, further comprising further comprising instructions for providing content from approved libraries.
15) A computer readable medium as specified in claim 10, further comprising further comprising instructions for sending alerts to users that the campaign content is schedule for deployment but not yet in an active or approved state.
16) The computer readable medium as specified in claim 10, wherein comprising further comprising instructions for approving the campaign content prior to its deployment.
17) The computer readable medium as specified in claim 10, wherein a centralize dashboard seamlessly presents content to users based on the specifications within a permissions matrix.
18) The computer readable medium as specified in claim 10, further comprising further comprising instructions for white labeling for rebranding purposes.
19) A method of operating a social media marketing campaign platform using a server, comprising the steps of:
- creating, scheduling, conducting and managing social media marketing campaigns whereby campaign content is deployed to one or more social networks from a single system;
- building responsive landing pages for the marketing campaign; and
- displaying information on a centralized dashboard indicating performance characteristics of the marketing campaign.
20) The method as specified in claim 19, wherein the landing page contains brand control functions limiting an ability of users to change brand related content.
21) The method as specified in claim 19, further comprising the step of enabling plug-ins for other landing page builders to integrate with the campaign content and a metric system.
22) The method as specified in claim 19, further comprising the step of identifying and tracking of web elements unifying a metrics of the campaign content and creating a performance score.
23) The method as specified in claim 19, further comprising the steps duplicating, distributing and deploying the campaign content to multiple locations where location specific data and time zone management is seamlessly updated without manual intervention;
24) The method as specified in claim 23, wherein a location profile sources location specific data for programmatic update of the campaign content.
25) The method as specified in claim 19, further comprising the step of providing content from approved libraries.
26) The method as specified in claim 19, further comprising the step of sending alerts to users that the campaign content is scheduled for deployment but not yet in an active or approved state.
27) The method as specified in claim 19, further comprising the step of approving the campaign content prior to its deployment.
28) The method as specified in claim 19, wherein a centralize dashboard seamlessly presents content to users based on the specifications within a permissions matrix.
29) The method as specified in claim 19, further comprising the step of white labeling for rebranding purposes.
Type: Application
Filed: Feb 13, 2015
Publication Date: Aug 13, 2015
Inventor: John J. Bojan
Application Number: 14/621,386